Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c23.16

v1.c23.16

During Alexander’s time, part of the Dardic region must have been in contact with the kingdom of Saubhūti, the Indian king around Jhelum who was friendly to the Greeks and known to them as Sopheithes. Strabo (64 BC-AD 19) wrote in his *Geographica* (XV.i.30) that there were valuable mines both of gold and silver among the mountains in the country of Sopheithes. It is quite understandable therefore, that the Dardic sources and the alluvial washings, mentioned by the Greek writers starting from Herodotus, yielded sufficient gold in India to be sent to the West Asian kings e.g., Solomon, Darius etc. of the first millennium BC.